Louis Theroux: behind bars was an outstanding documentary about the prisoners of San Quentin State Prison as Louis gets to stay for two weeks to pick behind the stories of how some of the inmates landed themselves in the world most notorious prison.
During the documentary I was intrigued by the quote at the beginning opening interview where one of the inmates states that "something's that thrill Louis and his camera man won't thrill the inmate and what thrills the inmate won't thrill Louis and the camera man".
The opening is strong with the description of san Quentin with its 3,000 inmates consisting of "murderers, sexual predators and small time criminals" one of the small time criminal we get to meet is "playboy Nolan" who sprayed substances at the guards and hijacked cars, he got a 3year sentence which was extended because of he gassed one of the guards. Louis becomes very curious about Nolan's time in san Quentin, why he wouldn't gas Alehos and the interior of his cell. On there break Louis is introduced to the various groups within the prison yard, such as the barbarian brotherhood which is a group of white inmates.
Louis questions always varies throughout the documentary with the leading question of what they have done to land themselves in san Quentin prison. It helps to keep the documentary going and keeps the inmates guessing.
1/5 of the way through Louis and the cameraman is taken to level 4 cell block which holds the rough secluded inmate, some of the offences they have caused to end up in here are: murder, rape, robbery, exporting contraband to other inmates. Anthony (one of the recent inmates) is interviewed by Louis and tell him that he killed his friend which is why he is in san Quentin prison. Anthony's expression shows that he is enjoying life as an inmate and thinks that the prison is a "playground". In the documentary Louis asks one of the wardens how Anthony can spend his 50yrs in san Quentin without getting himself into trouble, and keeping away from inmates that will use the younger inmates to stab or attack other inmates or guards.
At the inmates lunch break Louis sit with 2 members of the barbarian brotherhood and tries to push his limits after they tell him that he can't offer any food to them, he keeps asking if they are truthfully saying that as they tell him that they would mob him in a group of 3, they then meet Debra (a trans-woman inmate) who has a working relationship within the prison. Louis asks a lot of subjective questions about why they think the other inmates want to split relationship within the prison up and why they think their relationship works.
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